Teacher inspection in two Lebanese public schools. (c2007)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the process of teacher inspection in two public schools in Beirut. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with two science inspectors and two public-school principals. Open-ended questionnaires were distributed to 33 public-school secondary teachers. Participants were required to answer the same questions regarding several aspects of the inspection process: notification, school selection, general and subject-specific inspection, duration and time, frequency, feedback, and penalties. Results showed that inspection played a significant role in guiding teachers and monitoring their performance. However, academic qualifications and number of years of experience for selection to inspectorial positions were reduced over time. The number of subject-specific inspectors was found to be very low and there was a need for increasing the number of inspectorial visits. Teacher evaluation was not based on specific evaluation rubrics and was prone to be subjective. Feedback to teachers addressed their strengths and weaknesses and elicited the corresponding recommendations or penalties in case of violations. However, suggestions by the Education Inspectorate were not mandatory to the MinistJy of Education. The inspection process in Lebanon was not associated with promotion or salary increments and therefore it was not an incentive to high performing teachers and did not produce action plans for improvement.